Choose Your Victim Episode 5

This episode opens with our Survivor Tommy breaking the fourth wall, as per his reaction to Zack’s sudden death, and giving an update to what’s currently happening. (For those who don’t know, breaking the fourth wall is when a character acknowledges the audience.) We know from previous episodes that Tommy has his own amateur TV show/talk show. This is almost like a reality TV show within the reality TV show he’s supposedly in. Now I’m not usually a fan of breaking the fourth wall in a fiction series, but Choose Your Victim can get away with it. This is mostly because the series does it consistently, and its a part of the genre its parodying.

Tommy’s phone that he’s using to film is one of the last handheld cameras left in the plot. Since the first episode, the handheld and reality TV style cameras have been slowly phased out. I’m actually really liking this progression, because it makes it easier to watch. A purely handheld-style of filming can be hard on the eyes, and often keeps the audience in the dark. All of our remaining Survivors are now reunited (except Katrina) as we find Joshua and Nia finally making their way out of the woods. Harper and Nia start to argue out of paranoia, and crazy Josh wanders off. The poor virgin has lost all rational and of course does the stupid thing that normally a cute blonde does in the horror genre. Josh wanders to The Killer’s secret lair, with the Nia, Harper, and Tommy in hesitant pursuit. Katrina inadvertently wanders into the same building. The next sequence is filmed mostly with Tommy’s phone and the last surviving camera crew. Up until this point I was still had a thought that the camera crew was in on the conspiracy. Then the camera man is killed, and the female boom operator runs for her life. I love this sequence, because as the three try to find Josh they find themselves in the classic cat and mouse play with The Killer. The soundtrack they employ in this sequence is also well executed. At this point Tommy’s phone camera is the only handheld left. Has anyone else noticed the pattern of The Killer eliminating the handheld filming devices? This makes the phase-out concept I mentioned above more acceptable to the viewer. The kill in this episode is possibly my favourite thus far, although I was sad my favourite character got killed off. Its in this scene, in contrast to the previous chase sequence, that the filming goes back to traditional style. I feel this is a good choice on the director’s part, as we get full view of the kill - full blood spatter and all. The kill is also in contrast to the others in previous episodes, giving the viewers some well-deserved variety. There’s more tension, more empathy, and vulnerability in this kill. I believe in the next episode, the remaining Survivors will be very broken down. I’m curious to see if one of them man’s up and finds tohe fiery angers to fight back.